hen London’s elite escape city life‚ the British capital’s chiseled stone
façades and teeming avenues morph into expansive meadows and
ambling lanes that most of us know only through the eyes of Henry
James‚ Jane austen or Merchant & ivory films. the Victorian depictions
of the gentry taking holiday in the bucolic english countryside through
these lauded imaginations contain sweeping vistas‚ grand salons‚
wool-breasted gentlemen on horseback and carriages pulled by
prancing steeds clattering down long graveled drives. these were the
days of manor houses‚ now called mansion houses‚ and white-gloved
cosseting.
the estates on which these grand façades gleam are seeing a
rebirth in the countryside surrounding London‚ a prime example of
which is Coworth Park‚ a 70-room luxury resort encompassing 240 acres
of picturesque Berkshire parkland. originally built by prosperous east
indian merchant William shepheard in 1776‚ the Georgian mansion
house—which is predated only by the Coworth Park’s dower House‚
built in 1775—is the centerpiece of the estate‚ which passed through the
ownership of an extensive list of lords and ladies during the intervening
two-plus centuries‚ a roster that includes the earl of derby‚ who owned
it during the early half of the 19th century.
